Hangover, Sloopy

You say Michigan, I say Ohio State. You say seven, I say 42. You say blowout, I say party. You say hangover, I say gravy.

You say Michigan, I say Ohio State. You say seven, I say 42. You say blowout, I say party. You say hangover, I say gravy.

See, I have an answer for everything. Or so I was hoping early Sunday afternoon as I was trying to shake off the cobwebs from the previous night's revelry. Let's just say my Saturday evening post-game victory dance left me on the sore side the next day.

So while I was desperately searching for something to help limber me up again, I spotted a potential cure in the glut of a.m. TV commercials.

Float my boat: Everything's better with gravy, right? Like, say, even a woozy headache, a spacey ennui and a case of dehydration?

That's what I was thinking when I saw some convincing Bob Evans ads. Mashers, bread, meat, gravy and cheese - these were a few of my favorite things, I believed, if only they could work their magic. So I and a friend dashed off to sample a couple of Bob's newer offerings.

Chicken and gravy and gravy and chicken: If gravy was the healing serum I needed, then one of the dishes I tried provided a daily double of it - it promised gravy times two. Yes, Bob dares to go there. Amping up the redundancy, the special is actually called Chicken Fried Chicken.

Its preposterous list of components were salty but good fried chicken tenders on top of excellent real mashed potatoes, above one of Bob's fluffy, boat-sized buttermilk biscuits. Then the whole shebang was ladled with peppery and creamy "country" gravy and chicken gravy plus a final shower of shredded yellow cheese.

How did it eat? Well, kind of great, in an "I have lost all respect for myself" sort of way.

Fork it over: Compared to the previous plate, the Meatloaf Knife and Fork Sandwich was rather restrained - and well-named.

Made partly with sausage, the un-shy meatloaf was good - it was juicy and oniony and tasted like it was made with just the right touch of ketchup. It was a medium-sized raft of ground meat that had a slice of melted cheese on it (contributed little) and was placed on those good mashers, which in turn were above a piece of Texas toast (far less impressive than the biscuit). Naturally the whole shooting match was bombarded with gravy (brown, a tad industrial).

Would I eat them again?: Yes, after I recover from the severe caloric overload. Both are super-cheap, tasted good and delivered the intense, comfort-food magic I sorely needed. Verdict: Hangover gold.

WE TRIED IT! Spot a new menu item you'd like Taste Test to try? E-mail gbenton@columbusalive.com